


Excerpts from Policy Matters

by yhlee (etothey)



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Canon-Typical Sexual Practices, Epistolary, Historiography, M/M, Politics, Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat, bilingualism policy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 08:18:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8482282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etothey/pseuds/yhlee
Summary: Excerpts from a forthcoming work on the formation of policy during the reigns of King Laurent and King Damianos V, with notes on sections to be censored.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skazkanasmorka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skazkanasmorka/gifts).



> I never thought taking a course on the history of bilingual education years ago would spark a Treat, but here we are! I loved your prompts and hope you have a lovely Yuletide.

Damianos--

There is one additional matter we have not yet discussed, and which it might be better to settle before the councillors get their fingers into everything, if you take my meaning. If we are to rule our nations as one, it would greatly facilitate matters if people spoke the same languages.

-L.

[King Laurent's handwriting is flawless in its hairlines and swells, in the style popular at the time. He would have achieved the effect with an oblique nib holder and a flexible nib of the sort no longer popular today. The underscore beneath "before" is particularly emphatic, and as straight as though drawn with the aid of a ruler. Notably, if one flips the paper over, one can see the faint puncture at the end of the underscore. He must have been in a fine temper.--G., Royal Historian]

* * *

Laurent,

Couldn't we just send everyone to tutors?

Yours truly,  
Damen

[The handwriting of King Damianos V is less refined here than in his official correspondence--only to be expected. This particular missive was discovered wedged into a book of erotic Veretian poetry, speculated to be a gift from King Laurent to his co-ruler.--G.]

* * *

Damen--

Surely you jest? Notwithstanding the fact that the supply of bilingual tutors is limited, such women and men want to be paid for their trouble. Multiply that by the number of people in both Akielon and Vere requiring such instruction.

(Are you jesting? I'll make you pay for that. In bed.)

-L.

[Several pages of calculations were attached to the original. Of particular note are King Laurent's population figures, which are now understood to have been much more accurate than was originally believed. Jeraix's studies have been particularly informative in tracing the sources of the King's census data. Please see Appendix III for details.--G.]

* * *

[This letter is believed to date from the same day as the previous one. It is uncertain whether the former was ever delivered to the intended recipient.]

Look, damn you, even so small a matter as which language we list first in our decree is going to have political repercussions. Are our official languages "Veretian and Akielon," or the other way around? You see?

~~Those kisses work on me, but you can hardly kiss both our nations into submis~~

[Additional lines have been rendered illegible by the smudged ink.]

* * *

To our brother of Vere,

I am dictating this to one of the scribes you so generously provided me. Her blonde hair is very striking. Her mastery of Veretian cursive script and uncial Akielon script is truly astonishing. Dare I ask where you found her?

I am also impressed by the sum she is commanding. Your point about the cost of such expertise is taken. This does raise a question, however--do we merely wish for our subjects to attain spoken fluency in both languages, or do we also wish to raise the literacy rate while we're at it?

Damianos V of Akielos

* * *

Damen,

I suspect that you also brought up the literacy issue in jest, but I have been giving it serious consideration.

A number of the more learned professions require varying degrees of literacy and, in some cases, familiarity with the basic workings of mathematics. Year after year, the poor have sent their children to serve as pets in order to provide for the rest of the hungry mouths in their households. I believe something similar transpires in Akielon.

What we need is a public education system.

-L.

* * *

[This letter only survived because King Damianos V, who was somewhat absentminded about papers, scribbled a list of supplies for the palace garrison on the back and passed it off to his Captain.--G]

Laurent,

First you tell me that tutors for everyone will cost too much money and now you're telling me you want to open schools all over our nations? How do you propose to pay for this? We're already facing a shortfall in the budget for next year because we're having to provide grain rations for the provinces that suffered blight.

~~I also thought you were against raising taxes. Make up your~~

~~I realize you have a plan. You always have a~~

~~You can't distract me. It was amusing the first time, but your supply of blonde scribes has to be finite and you know I'll never look at anyone but~~

* * *

Damen,

Remember the revised border protocols? Or have you not had a chance to look over my proposal because you were too busy personally inspecting every sword in the arsenal? We no longer need protective tariffs between our two nations. It will make an immense difference psychologically to the traders, and to the people who buy items from the traders. In fact, I have been considering the matter of protectionism in general and I am convinced that it does more harm than good. The increase in trade revenues will more than offset the loss of those monies if we do away with tariffs across all our borders, not just the one that Akielon and Vere has in common.

-L.

[See Appendix IV for King Laurent's calculations thereon.--G.]

* * *

Let me guess. The pets will be offered educations. And you're going to send me first.

-D.

* * *

The thought had occurred to me, yes.

-L.

[This last exchange must be censored from the official histories, as is the policy with any mentions of King Damianos V's unusual status early on during his time in Vere.--G.]

* * *

What about the ones that don't want to go? Some of them won't, you know.

-D.

* * *

My dear brother of Akielon,

I don't see any reason to force anyone to do anything they don't want to. The point is getting to choose, after all. We will merely set it up so that the benefits of going to the schools are too good to turn down. Enlightened self-interest will do the rest. I will send over that proposal when I have hammered out a few more of the details.

Meanwhile, the matter of languages. I have known a number of people who learned another language later in life, and they always had a betraying accent. If we truly wish people to speak both languages as their own, education must be bilingual from the beginning. Setting up the infrastructure for this will take some juggling, but it won't be impossible. I believe a series of cultural exchanges will provide the necessary cross-fertilization.

-L.

* * *

Laurent,

Haven't you forgotten the part where half our people hate each other?

-D.

* * *

So did we, once. And look at us now.

-L.

[Here King Laurent embellishes his initial with an elaborate flourish.--G.]

* * *

I concede that you're persuasive when you choose to be. But I recommend omitting the business with the whip.

-D.

* * *

Speaking of which, we really should do that again sometime. Tomorrow night?

[This one bears no initial or signature, but the handwriting unmistakably matches King Laurent's. What transpired between them on the next night is unrecorded. This exchange, too, should be censored from the official histories.--G.]


End file.
